In The Shadow Of The Moon

Hey, did you know there was a solar eclipse yesterday?! Obviously I’m kidding, because if you live in America it was virtually impossible to miss the mad coverage the “Great American Eclipse” garnered. No matter where I turned, it was ECLIPSE GLASSES and DON’T LOOK AT THE SUN and TOTALITY and blah blah blah. Eclipse eclipse ecliiiiiiiiipse!

But, you all know me. I was super into it. If I’d been a little more on-the-ball, I absolutely would have arranged for our family to be in the path of totality. But this summer has been very hectic and it just wasn’t in the cards for us. Luckily, I was at least on top of things enough to secure a bunch of eclipse glasses for us and our friends. Even if we couldn’t see totality in our area, we’d still see something and I wanted to make it memorable for my kiddos.

My friend Tara and I planned a little front yard picnic at her house for our kids. And you know we had themed food, even though it was 9 am.

Those eclipse glasses are hilariously over-the-top. Look at them!

Stars and stripes and even a bald eagle. We are so damn extra in America.

After about 1,000 reminders not to look at the sun without eyewear, we let the kids get their first glimpse of the eclipse.

As we sat outside, Tara’s neighbors started trickling over. It basically became a big block party, with kids and parents and grandparents!

Most of the kids had never seen an eclipse before (or didn’t remember it). We started showing them all the different ways we could see the eclipse, like with a colander, with our fingers, and in the shadows created by leaves.

All the kids were impressed by the show, even though we only had about 62% coverage.

Little-known fact, but if you look at an eclipse with a moon pie in your mouth, it heightens the experience.

But I have to say, watching the TV coverage of what it looked like in the totality zone gave me chills. Even the kids geeked out over it, counting down and cheering when the moon completely covered the sun.

Watching it with so many people made the eclipse so much more fun for all of us. I think sharing the experience with their friends is what will make my kids remember it for a long time.

And you’d better believe that we’ll travel to the path of totality in 2024. Annie made me pinky swear, and that’s a binding contract.

9 Comments

2. I had those SAME GLASSES and had the SAME THOUGHT. Whyyyy are we so extra?!?!

3. I was in the path of totality (in Mt. Juliet, TN– right outside Nashville) for about 2-3 mins. I watched for a minute of it but honestly was underwhelmed. I feel like we made a huuuuge deal out of two minutes for MONTHS, and then poof! it’s over! So I was a little blase about it… might be my depression talking, but I just was meh about the whole thing.

I work at a Space Centre and even though we were only going to see 86%, we had about 4,000 people lined up to see through our extra telescopes and shared glasses. I went up and down the line for about 2 1/2 hours, sharing my own personal viewing glasses – and occasionally sneaking a peek myself.

Amber says:

I’m happy you made such a big deal out of it….looked like everyone had a blast!
I’m a Lyft driver and my ” not-so-fun” passenger didn’t want to stop and look at it. He just wanted to get to LAX.
I even handed out the glasses to my passengers all weekend!! I was excited, but I guess some folks were not….:(

My mom lives in Idaho Falls, Idaho, where it was in the totality zone. She said it was amazing!!

We live in the path of totality and had a full 2 minutes of totality. It was amazing. We actually had about two hours to experience the eclipse from the very beginning to the very end. The shadow bands on the ground after totality was really interesting as well. It will be well worth traveling to the path of totality in 2024.

Kathy says:

My kids were in school (boo) so I had to share the experience with my co-workers and even some other people in my building. We only got about 80% but it was still fun. I have LOVED seeing everyone’s cool ideas for theme parties and different ways to view the eclipse. Consider Monday a test run for the 2024 one where MY HOUSE WILL BE IN THE PATH OF TOTALITY!!! Whoo Hoo Cleveland will be smack dab in the middle of it all. Now we just have to cross our fingers that the skies are clear. Thanks, as always, for sharing your experiences!

Jenny says:

We went to my parent’s in St. Louis, which was in the path of totality. Such a cool experience! Even my 3 year old loved it. You could always come to Indiana, we will be in the path of totality in 2024.

Rebecca says:

I’m happy you let all the kids experience it! I actually met my sister in the middle of the path of totality and it was AMAZING! My hometown is in the path of the next eclipse. I’m already geeking out about going back home for it!

Amanda says:

Come to Kingston, ON (Canada) in 2024! Fantastic town with awesome food on the path of totality. A good friend lives in Nashville and said it was the coolest thing she’d ever seen so is coming up 7 years from now (also, she randomly watched with Judge Reinhold?!)